Search This Blog

Start Watching 'Justified'

Justified may have been on for three years already, but it isn't too late to catch up with one of the best shows on television right now. Here are a few reasons to start watching now:

Raylan Givens
The central lead of the show is not your typical figure of authority. He's not particularly gifted, not insanely large, or a picture of sound psyche. His father is an ex-con, his "best friend" has tried to kill him multiple times and he lives above a bar. Dirty Harry isn't around anymore, but don't let that stop you from thinking quippy law enforcers with itchy trigger fingers are gone from the scene.

No one is one-dimensional
Boyd Crowter (Walton Goggins) has gone from Neo-Nazi to Revivalist Leader to Vigilante in a matter of three seasons. Ava has gone from abused housewife to right-hand woman in the most efficient criminal organization in Harlan. Even background characters like Dewey Crowe have their own histories.

The villainsare always worth watching
Margo Martindale won an Emmy for her turn as the murderous matriarch of Bennett County, Neal McDonough had, perhaps, the most memorable goodbye of any FX character ever and Boyd, depending on how you feel about his transformation from thug to kingpin, is always entertaining.

Popular posts from this blog

Weird is rarely used as a good quality in film criticism, but few words so completely describe Charlie Kaufman’s work as weird does. All of his films are a window into his very particular worldview, and that p.o.v. is certainly unlike anything seen in pop culture. For that reason, Anomalisa became an entry on many most anticipated lists for 2015. That Kaufman chose stop-motion to tell this story made the picture an event. So it came as a disappointment when the film was one of the year’s more mundane efforts.

Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind have an energy and heart at the center that is not present here. Previous collaborators like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry were able to temper the overwhelming negativity Charlie Kaufman occasionally falls prey to, but, this time, the writer doesn’t have a director to rein things in. In all of his efforts to create an experience that is both familiar and alienating, Kaufman may have accidentally created something host…

It may surprise many that Martin Luther King Jr. never received the celluloid treatment prior to Selma. Sure he had been mentioned in other historical pieces, but short of documentary footage, King was never given center stage. Quite shocking given the man's legacy and the lingering effect of his efforts still felt today. Several years of production and a director change later, Selma arrives as the film worthy of the man.

Westerns have never recovered from the oversaturation that killed off viewer interest decades ago, but every now and then a gem pops up. Recent successes like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2007’s 3:10 to Yuma and the Coen brothers adaptation of True Grit all did well because they tweaked the genre slightly, but director Kristian Levring goes with an old school approach. A faithful recreation of those revenge Westerns made so popular in the 1970s, The Salvation envelopes many elements of previous Clint Eastwood classics and wraps it into a tidy package.

The Salvation starts in on the central dilemma, joining Jon (Hannibal‘s Mad Mikkelsen) at the train station where he awaits the arrival of his wife and son. Jon and his brother, Peter (Mikael Persbrandt), have lived in the United States long enough to build a hospitable life for their family back in Denmark. This homecoming should be a sweet moment to establish the family important to Jon, but fate plays out…